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The boarding school brochure.
“What is this?” she asked, and my heart sank.
“Aria…” I started to say, but nothing came out.
How could I explain what I had planned on doing after the last couple of days we’d spent together. After the year I’d spent with her and the girls. After all the plans we had just finished making for Christmas.
“Boarding school?” Her brows furrowed, narrowed, and worry hit me hard. Anxiety and panic took me under as I watched the woman I loved, the woman who I had finally claimed as my own, realize what I’d planned out.
Because that had been the plan. Sending River and Lake away the second week of January. But it wasn’t anymore. I was going to keep Aria and the girls home. It had been an asinine plan to begin with.
“You’re sending…” The flyer fell to the ground as her hand moved to her chest, resting at her neck. A perfect neck I had just marked up with my mouth in the shower an hour ago.
“You’re sending the girls away.” It wasn’t a question but a statement. It had been the plan, but hearing her say it out loud made me feel like a monster. Her eyes darted up and locked with mine as something else clicked into place. “You said we would need to talk.”
“What?” I stood taller, trying to understand what she had just said.
“The day the girls left,” she swallowed, and her cheek twitched. “Before the earthquake, you said we needed to talk before the new year. You’re firing me.”
“Aria, that was—"
“Wow. Okay.” Her eyes dropped to the ground as she processed everything. As my heart ached. “Why would you do that?”
“Aria—"
“Aiden, they need you,” she stressed, taking a step back. “I know being a single dad isn’t easy. I was raised by—"
“This isn’t your problem,” I clipped defensively because I was a bastard.
My mouth had always gotten the best of me, and I knew immediately I’d said the wrong thing. But instead of judging me, she flinched like I’d struck her, which was worse. She closed her cardigan over her chest and stood taller.
“It is,” she said strongly, fire burning in her dark stare. “It is my problem, Mr. Stark.”Mr. Stark?And there they were. The walls she was building around her heart. To protect herself.
“Ari—" The look she shot me made me shut up.
“Those girls love you. They need you.”
“I would be here on their breaks.” Not that that was even the plan anymore.Why aren’t I telling her that?
“Breaks?” She laughed un-humorously. I crossed my arms over my chest. “What are you planning on doing, Mr. Stark?” she snapped. I hated the snide in her voice when she called me Mr. Stark even though I more than deserved it. “Try to make it up to them with, with what? Lavish vacations? Buy their forgiveness back?”
“Excuse me?” I scowled. She had hit it on the nose. Had figured out my exact plan.
“You’re all those girls have, and you’re just going to send them away?” she asked, not bothering to hide the disgust. It pissed me off.
“Miss Martinez, I think this is a little over your pay—"
“Don’t,” she clipped, pointing at me with so much anger and betrayal flashing in her eyes it made me stumble backwards.
“Don’t do that,” Aria rasped. I swallowed the bile that rose up my throat. Jesus Christ, even with her own heart breaking, she was fierce. Beautiful. A warrior goddess standing up for what was right. For my girls.
“Don’t act like my opinion doesn’t matter. I’ve been here for them every possible day, and I love those little girls like they’re my own—"
“But they’re not,” I cut her off, immediately regretting the words as they slipped past my lips.
“Well…” She stepped back, the hurt in her dark eyes crystal clear.
Take it back, you idiot!I could see her getting further and further away from me. Not just physically but emotionally.Take it back! Apologize, you fucking idiot! You don’t mean that!My heart screamed at me, and my brain nodded in agreeance, but my mouth didn’t seem to understand.
